Heart disease is a leading cause of adult and childhood mortality in the western world. The underlying pathology is typically loss of cardiomyocytes that leads to heart failure, or improper development of cardiomyocytes during embryogenesis that leads to congenital heart malformations. Because cardiomyocytes have little or no regenerative capacity, current therapeutic approaches are limited. Embryonic stem cells possess clear cardiogenic potential, but efficiency of cardiac differentiation, risk of tumor formation, and issues of cellular rejection must be overcome.
There is a need in the art for methods of generating cardiomyocytes.